Industrial History: Adams Street Bridge

(Bridge Hunter, Bridge Hunter (old), Historic Bridges, Chicago Loop Bridges, Satellite)

It has been closed all summer of 2016 to traffic for rehabilitation. But since it is so close to the Union Station, they have limited the pedestrian outage to two short closures. I caught it with one leaf up because of the construction work. See below for the rest of the photos I took that day.

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Jack Reid posted

The inner workings of the Adams Street bascule bridge.

Edit - I took this photo myself just last week.
My job allows for these cool opportunities.

Neil Gale posted
Adams Street Swing Bridge, Chicago. 1895
Notice the coal soot. Many buildings were washed periodically.
Reno Lovison shared
Jacek Boczarski posted (source)
Michael Garay Close the windows!
Mary Cruska Is that when the river was very toxic? Like when the stockyards used to let their offal waste go into the water and it bubbled up by Bridgeport (Bubbly Creek) from gases from dead carcasses in the river?
Dennis DeBruler Yes. The new canal did not reverse the flow until 1900.
Historic Chicago posted
The tugboat Binghampton passes the Adams Street swing bridge (1895)
Pete Phillips I'd be bummed if that were my window. lol

Dennis DeBruler posted an ECC link
The north end of Pennsy's freight house, the Old Union Station in the background and Adams Street Bridge on the right. And people swimming in the river in an annual celebration of how clean it has become since it was reversed in 1900 and of the reduction of commercial traffic. (Industry and the big boats were moving to Calumet River.)

MWRD posted
Historical Photo of the Week: The Pennsylvania Company property on the west side of the South Branch of the Chicago River looking south from Madison Street on September 29, 1903. Construction to widen and deepen the river in this area began in 1906. #TBT Chicago River Friends of the Chicago River
[I'm guessing that is Adams, not Monroe, bridge in the background because the name on the building in the background begins with "Adams." The building in the foreground has the sign "Pennsylvania Company Freight Office." Update: also the Monroe Street Bridge has had just a trunnion bridge, which was built in 1919.]

David Daruszka posted
From the archives of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District. The
Adams Street swing bridge is opened for passing river traffic. On the left above the boxcars is the mansard roof of the old Union Station. To the right of that is the recently completed (1911) Chicago and North Western Station at Madison Street. Photo circa 1911.
Dennis DeBruler The Pennsy box car would be a "home" boxcar. The New York, Chicago & St. Louis boxcar indicates the Nickel Plate had not started using its nickname on its equipment.

MWRD posted
The South Branch of the Chicago River on June 15, 1911, viewed looking north from Jackson Boulevard towards the Adams Street Bridge.
Dennis DeBruler shared

MWRD posted on Mar 12, 2023
The South Branch of the Chicago River on June 15, 1911, viewed looking north from Jackson Boulevard towards the Adams Street bridge.